The Kirkus Prize is one of the richest literary awards in the world, with a prize of $50,000 bestowed annually to authors of fiction, nonfiction and young readers’ literature. It was created to celebrate the 81 years of discerning, thoughtful criticism Kirkus Reviews has contributed to both the publishing industry and readers at large. Books that earned the Kirkus Star with publication dates between November 1, 2014, and October 31, 2015, are automatically nominated for the 2015 Kirkus Prize, and the winners will be selected on October 23, 2015, by an esteemed panel composed of nationally respected writers and highly regarded booksellers, librarians and Kirkus critics.

KIRKUS REVIEW

Sidney Criser might still be 14, but that doesn’t stop her from driving the junk car her uncle gave her an hour over mountains to clean stalls at a rich woman’s barn. Sid grew up tough, and she can ride anything, but times are desperate: Since her father’s death, her mother has taken up with a no-good abuser who threatens to move them to California. Her mother’s lost her job, and her mother’s brother, her uncle Wayne, who’s long been Sidney’s mainstay, is just about to drink himself to death. Nothing’s easy in their hardscrabble mill town. The other half of Virginia, where pedigreed horses sleep in “nest[s] of pine shavings,” has the horses Sidney longs for, but she’s cleareyed enough to see that rich people have problems, too, just like her classmates destined to work in the mill. "I know that sounds mean and angry, but I’m not either one. We have a life to live that could stop any minute, and I guess I can’t believe this is how some people want to spend it. It makes me sad as hell." Everything comes together here—setting, dialogue, horse details and, most impressively, voice—so that the near–fairy-tale ending works; like the rest of the book, it feels absolutely true.

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